Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Flying Snakes And Griffin Claws: And Other Classical Myths, Historical Oddities, And Scientific Curiosities By Adrienne Mayor, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Is Superman Circumcised? The Complete Jewish History Of The World’S Greatest Hero By Roy Schwartz, Gabriel C. Salter

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

In Is Superman Circumcised?, Russell Schwartz provides a historical overview of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's creation of the comic book character Superman, arguing that Siegel and Shuster's backgrounds in Jewish immigrants gives a particularly Jewish subtext to their character. Schwartz builds on this argument with a larger historical overview of American comic book publishing, showing how Judaism and Jewish-American immigrant experiences have informed that industry from its earliest days.

Two Sagas Of Mythical Heroes: Hervor And Heiðrek And Hrólf Kraki And His Champions, Translated And Edited By Jackson Crawford, And Norse Mythology By Jackson Crawford, Phillip Fitzsimmons

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Tolkien As A Literary Artist: Exploring Rhetoric, Language And Style In The Lord Of The Rings By Thomas Kullmann And Dirk Siepmann, Sharon L. Bolding

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

The Modern Myths: Adventures In The Machinery Of The Popular Imagination By Phillip Ball, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Dante's Dream: A Jungian Psychoanalytical Approach By Gwenyth E. Hood, Liam Butchart

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This review presents a discussion of Gwenyth E. Hood's recent book, Dante's Dream: A Jungian Psychoanalytical Approach. The review focuses on the Jungian methods that Hood utilizes, as well as important questions about the identity and construction of mythopoeic literature that Hood's discussion raises.

The Writer's Map : An Atlas Of Imaginary Lands By Huw Lewis-Jones, Susan M. Moore

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Charles Williams And C.S. Lewis: Friends In Co-Inherence By Paul S. Fiddes, Tiffany Brooke Martin

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Book review of Charles Williams and C.S. Lewis: Friends in Co-inherence by Paul S. Fiddes

Friendship In The Lord Of The Rings By Cristina Casagrande, Mark A. Brians Ii

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Queering Faith In Fantasy Literature: Fantastic Incarnations And The Deconstruction Of Theology By Taylor Driggers, C. Palmer-Patel

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Review of Taylor Drigger's Queering Faith in Fantasy Literature: Fantastic Incarnations and the Deconstruction of Theology, the first publication in Bloomsbury Academic's new 'Perspectives in Fantasy' series

Tolkien, Race, And Racism In Middle-Earth By Robert Stuart, Robert T. Tally Jr.

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

n/a

What Sam Said, David Bratman

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Interpreting the meaning and significance of Sam Gamgee's final words in The Lord of the Rings.

The Nurse Of Elfland: Lizzie Endicott And C.S. Lewis, Reggie Weems

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

In Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis introduced Lizzie Endicott as the first of two "other blessings" in his childhood, even before his introduction of Warnie. But apart from his abbreviated 136-word biography, very little is known about the nurse who introduced Lewis to faery tales. Based on the Lewis Family Papers, genealogical research, and personal interviews with Lizzie’s relatives, this article introduces Lizzie to the world of Lewismania. It also suggests various ways in which Lizzie influenced the man and the author that C.S. Lewis became, as well as the mythical worlds he created and Lewis’s anonymous tributes to …

Well, I’M Back: Samwise Gamgee And The Future Of Tolkien’S Literary Pastoral, Mg Prezioso

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This article examines the treatment of the literary pastoral in The Lord of the Rings in order to demonstrate that Tolkien’s pastoral, often considered a vestige of authorial nostalgia, is as forward-looking as it is wistful. Through Samwise Gamgee and his connection to the Shire, Tolkien presents a pastoral that, though rooted in memory, is as mutable as nature itself – one that orients the reader forward and conveys that change is not only something to be accepted, but also embraced.

Goddess And Mortal: The Celtic And The French Morgan Le Fay In Tolkien’S Silmarillion, Clare Moore

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Few characters change more in their depiction throughout ‘traditional’ Arthurian literature than Morgan le Fay, who transitions from the benevolent and supernatural Queen of the Isle of Apples to the mortal sister of King Arthur with a complicated relationship to her brother and his court. These two versions of the Arthurian enchantress are represented in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Vita Merlini and the French Vulgate Cycle, and they parallel two of Tolkien’s prominent female characters in The Silmarillion: Lúthien and Aredhel. Establishing parallels between Monmouth’s Morgen and Tolkien’s Lúthien demonstrates both a connection to the Celtic tradition and a departure …

"The Evil Side Of Heroic Life": Monsters And Heroes In Beowulf And The Hobbit, Catherine Hall

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Tolkien scholars have long studied the many connections between Beowulf and J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. This essay explores the novel’s representation of heroism and monstrousness and the ideal of kingship in relation to the Old English poem. Parallel descriptions between heroes and monsters illustrate that neither Beowulf nor Thorin is immune to monstrousness, but analyzing their actions in light of Hrothgar’s advice to Beowulf illustrates that both characters distinguish themselves as great kings and heroes. Moreover, how these characters resist evil varies greatly and reveals a core distinction between the Beowulfian and Tolkienian hero, and even highlights …

“What Happened To Battles Are Ugly Affairs?”: Fighting Girls In The Films The Chronicles Of Narnia, Chapters 1, 2 And 3, Anne-Frédérique Mochel-Caballero

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Although C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia (1950-1956) are still hugely popular today, some critics have accused the books of representing masculinity and femininity in an outmoded way. The three Walden Media films, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Prince Caspian (2008) and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010), appear to adopt a more contemporary perspective, especially as far as the representation of fighting girls is concerned. While Lewis seemed slightly reluctant to show women playing an active role on the battlefield, Andrew Adamson, who directed the first two films, lets Susan, the female protagonist, fight alongside the …

Tellers Of Dark Fairy Tales: Common Themes In The Works Of C.S. Lewis And Terence Fisher, Gabriel C. Salter

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This article explores connections between C.S. Lewis and filmmaker Terence Fisher, notably how their works explore themes like the charm of evil, white magic’s dubious nature, and myth hinting at divine truths. By viewing these themes, Fisher and Lewis’s common views on fairy tales, and how feedback informed their work, scholars discover nuance in the perceived “Inklings versus secular British culture” dichotomy.

"Delight In Horror": Charles Williams And Russell Kirk On Hell And The Supernatural, Camilo Peralta

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Charles Williams has always been one of the more overlooked members of the Inklings, and the continued neglect of his poetry and “supernatural thrillers” suggests that he is not likely to experience a dramatic increase in popularity anytime soon. Similarly, Russell Kirk is an American historian who will always be better known for writing The Conservative Mind in 1953 than for any of the dozens of short stories and novels he wrote, many of which deal with ghostly or supernatural themes. In fact, Kirk acknowledged Williams to be an important influence on his fiction; this influence is perhaps most evident …

Haunted Manikins And The Hero(Es) Within: The Modern Romantic Hero As The Divinely Inspired Person Inside Of The Personality, Mikaela E.S. Von Kursell

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

In Charles Williams's All Hallows’ Eve, the primary female characters wage war internally: Betty is a split-selved “house divided,” and the protagonist Lester and the antagonist Evelyn are bound together in a deformed manikin, each pulling the body in a different direction according to their wills. With this image of a “haunted” manikin, Williams neatly concretizes and lends credence to the notion of compartmentalized selves—those competing and complex matrices of impulses which exist within one body. In That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis elaborates on this idea by offering a sustained analysis of Jane’s many compartmentalized selves: the smitten …

“Read This Book, And You Will Find All The Grand And Marvelous Things To Be Found”: A Song Of Ice And Fire And Medieval Travelogues, Elisabeth Brander

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Although travel is one of the most prominent themes in the modern fantasy genre, travelogues are not usually regarded as one of the predecessors of Western fantasy. Yet a close examination of both medieval travel narratives and fantasy novels reveals many shared characteristics. The journeys of fantasy protagonists, which include encounters with foreign cultures, monsters, and marvels, tend to echo the journeys of the medieval missionaries and merchants who ventured into the Far East in the 13^th and 14^th centuries. This article uses George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire as a lens through which to …

Echoing Ecopoetics: Fantasy Literature's Background Sounds, Catherine Olver

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Despite David Abram’s fear that reading disrupts people’s “attunement to environing nature,” fantasy literature can vibrantly convey how to hear our environments as it describes characters attuning their ears to particular places. Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series (1995-2021) and Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking trilogy (2008-10) develop an echoing ecopoetics of place through both world-building and style. Their fantasy worlds emphasize that characters must relearn to listen in unfamiliar environments: adjusting their expectations and interpretations of background sounds, recognising significant silences, adapting to new ways of communicating, and seeking meaning in nonhuman sounds rather than dismissing them as noise. Their stylistic …

History In The Margins: Epigraphs And Negative Space In Robin Hobb’S Assassin’S Apprentice, Matthew Oliver

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Robin Hobb’s Assassin’s Apprentice demonstrates a significant effect of epic fantasy’s conventions for creating the history of a fictional world. By prefacing each chapter with an epigraph from an official in-world historical text before giving a first-person personal narrative, the novel blurs the boundaries between text and paratext, public and private, official history and personal myth-making. This structure raises questions about what is central and marginal in history, suggesting the extent to which historical narrative is constructed in the imagination by taking the facts surrounding a central event from which the historian is absent—a process much like negative space drawing …

David Lindsay's The Violet Apple, Eric Wills

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Applies the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel to The Violet Apple, a posthumously published novel by David Lindsay, whose A Voyage to Arcturus is frequently cited as an influence on Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet.

Notes Of An Inklings Scholar: Musings On Myth And History, Promises And Secrecy, Ethical Reviewing, And The Limits Of Authorial Intent, David Bratman

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Five mini-essays proposing hypotheses on topics in J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis scholarship.

1. The Expansion and Contraction of Tolkien's Imagination: how and why his burgeoning sub-creation began to contract and systematize in his later years.

2. A Hobbit in the Legendarium: Tolkien's original conception of the relationship between The Hobbit and The Silmarillion may have been to have Bilbo visiting a land of fable.

3. Cursed fate that gave thee to the Moore: Lewis's devotion to Mrs. Moore may have been a sense of metaphysical and spiritual obligation.

4. But did he ever read the book?: How Edmund Wilson …

Editorial, Janet Brennan Croft

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

Leadership In Middle-Earth: Theories And Applications For Organizations - Exploring Effective Leadership Practices Through Popular Culture By Michael J. Urick, Alana White

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

A review of Urick's Leadership in Middle-Earth which considers both the appeal and limitations of utilising examples of leadership from Tolkien's legendarium to illustrate academic theory.

Musical Scores And The Eternal Present: Theology, Time, And Tolkien By Chiara Bertoglio, John Wm. Houghton

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Review of Chiara Bertoglio, Musical Scores and the Eternal Present: Theology, Time, and Tolkien (2021).

Pagan Saints In Middle-Earth By Claudio A. Testi, Toni Thibodeaux

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No abstract provided.

No Ordinary People: 21 Friendships Of C.S. Lewis By Joel D. Heck, James Stockton

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

No Ordinary People: 21 Friendships of C.S. Lewis. Joel D. Heck. Hamden, CT: Winged Lion Press, 2022, 395 p. 9781935688228. $19.50.